On July 25, 2016, in the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic, with assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the roundtable discussion on the subject “Primaries in the DPR as one of formation’s levers of the democratic state” took place.

The event was attended by deputies of the People’s Council of the DPR Vladimir Bidyovka, Elena Melnik and Ekaterina Martyanova, Deputy Administrator of the executive committee of the public movement “Donetsk Republic” Andrey Kramar, the Chairman of the Republican Organizing Committee for the Primaries in the DPR Natalia Volkova. Also, the round table discussion was attended by foreign public figures Manuel Ochsenreiter, Udo Stein and Thomas Rudy (Germany), Miodrag Zarkovich (Serbia) and Johan Bäckman (Finland).

The deputy of People’s Council from “Free Donbass” fraction Elena Melnik listed a number of basic needs of the Donetsk People’s Republic which will be achieved through the Primaries.

“Carrying out of nationwide voting in the Republic, on the one hand, will help us to fully understand and address the problematic aspects of the process of the state system formation. On the other hand, it will help to show the world that claims of the Ukrainian side are void.

First of all, it is a demonstration for the whole world of the fact that in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic it is possible to hold democratic open elections according to the highest standards. And it will not contradict the Minsk agreements. Holding local elections in our Republic would be the result of settlement of the conflict by peaceful means in accordance with the Minsk agreements,” Elena Melnik said.

The chairman of Committee of National Council for the constitutional legislation and the state construction deputy Vladimir Bidyovka in the report on the subject “Legal mechanism of stages’ realization of Primaries in the DPR” told about stages of implementation of preparation and carrying out nationwide voting in the Republic.

“According to article 2 of the Constitution of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a source of the power in our state is the people. For this reason at the first stage of preparation, the organization and carrying out of nationwide voting, town hall meetings have taken place at which organizing committees for preparation of Primaries were created; their Chairmen, and also delegates for all-republican meeting have been elected.

In the future, at republican conference, the temporary electoral commission will be elected, and during the work it will prepare a number of the regulations urged to settle the procedure of Primaries. I am sure that these regulations will be based on universal standards. And I would like to emphasize that, from the point of view of international law, this procedure of Primaries, which is carried out in the Republic, does not contradict the Minsk agreements. As in any civilized country, the people have the right for will”, Vladimir Bidyovka concluded.

The deputy of People’s Council from “Donetsk Republic” fraction Ekaterina Martyanova in her report “Primaries-2016: reset of political system of the Donetsk People’s Republic” elaborated on the meaning of the Primaries for the entire course of the Minsk Group process to resolve the conflict in the Donbass.

“Primaries are a necessary stage of self-determination process. In many international legal document the terms “people” is used as the subject of self-determination. So, the people of Donbass, during the coup d’etat in Ukraine in 2014, were forced to choose a course of self-determination, self-government to create a legal system. As you know, the paragraph on holding state elections in the DPR is included in the text of the Minsk agreements, however, the Verkhovna Rada has not adopted amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine concerning the Special Status of Donbass, and moreover, it hadn’t agreed with us the rules of the electoral process beforehand.

Since Ukraine sabotages “Minsk-2”, we have to show the world our abilities in the organization of elections, while remaining within the framework of the negotiation process. To this end, on July 4, the Head of the Donetsk People’s Republic was given the task to conduct Primaries.

Primaries are necessary for the Republic as they will help to take place a way of construction of the state. One of the main results of the primaries should be a reboot of the political system that will change the nature of the relationship between state and society,” Ekaterina Martyanova noted.